1,204 research outputs found
Optical Polarization of 52 Radio-Loud QSOs and BL Lac Objects
Polarization measurements are presented for 52 radio-loud QSOs and BL Lac
objects. For 9 highly polarized (p >3%) AGN, these are the first published
polarization measurements. Of these 9, 7 are highly-polarized QSOs (HPQs), one
is a BL Lac object and another is a likely BL Lac object. Polarization
variability is confirmed for some of these new and previously known
highly-polarized AGN. While 6 of the HPQs have flat radio spectra are almost
certainly blazars, PKS 1452-217 is probably a new member of the rare class of
radio-loud QSOs that show high polarization by scattering, and is therefore
important for testing orientation Unified Schemes. In competition for the
highest redshift HPQ are the well-observed QSO PKS 0438-43 at z = 2.85, with
maximum p = 4.7%, and PKS 0046-315 at z = 2.72, for which we find p = 13%.Comment: 6 pages. Astronomical Journal, in pres
Markers of inflammation and bone remodelling associated with improvement in clinical response measures in psoriatic arthritis patients treated with golimumab
<p>Objective To determine serum biomarker associations with clinical response to golimumab treatment in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).</p>
<p>Methods GOâREVEAL was a randomised, placebo-controlled study of golimumab in patients with active PsA. Samples were collected from 100 patients at baseline, week 4 and week 14, and analysed for serum-based biomarkers and protein profiling (total 92 markers); data were correlated with clinical measures at week 14.</p>
<p>Results Serum levels of a subset of proteins (apolipoprotein C III, ENRAGE, IL-16, myeloperoxidase, vascular endothelial growth factor, pyridinoline, matrix metalloproteinase 3, C-reactive protein (CRP), carcinoembryonic antigen, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 and macrophage inflammatory protein 1α) at baseline or week 4 were strongly associated with American College of Rheumatology 20% improvement (ACR20) response and/or disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28) at week 14. A smaller subset of proteins was significantly associated with a 75% improvement in the psoriasis area and severity index score (PASI75) at week 14, (adiponectin, apolipoprotein CIII, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, and tumour necrosis factor α). Subsets of proteins were identified as potentially predictive of clinical response for each of the clinical measures, and the power of these biomarker panels to predict clinical response to golimumab treatment was stronger than for CRP alone.</p>
<p>Conclusions This analysis provides insight into several panels of markers that may have utility in identifying PsA patients likely to have ACR20, DAS28, or PASI75 responses following golimumab treatment.</p>
The star formation properties of disk galaxies: Halpha imaging of galaxies in the Coma supercluster
We present integrated H alpha measurements obtained from imaging observations
of 98 late-type galaxies, primarily selected in the Coma supercluster. These
data, combined with H alpha photometry from the literature, include a magnitude
selected sample of spiral (Sa to Irr) galaxies belonging to the "Great Wall"
complete up to mp=15.4, thus composed of galaxies brighter than Mp=-18.8
(H0=100 km Mpc^-1 s^-1). The frequency distribution of the H alpha E.W.,
determined for the first time from an optically complete sample, is
approximately gaussian peaking at E.W. ~25 A. We find that, at the present
limiting luminosity, the star formation properties of spiral+Irr galaxies
members of the Coma and A1367 clusters do not differ significantly from those
of the isolated ones belonging to the Great Wall. The present analysis confirms
the well known increase of the current massive star formation rate (SFR) with
Hubble type. Moreover perhaps a more fundamental anticorrelation exists between
the SFR and the mass of disk galaxies: low-mass spirals and dwarf systems have
present SFRs ~50 times higher than giant spirals. This result is consistent
with the idea that disk galaxies are coeval, evolve as "closed systems" with
exponentially declining SFR and that the mass of their progenitor protogalaxies
is the principal parameter governing their evolution. Massive systems having
high initial efficiency of collapse, or a short collapse time-scale, have
retained little gas to feed the present epoch of star formation. These findings
support the conclusions of Gavazzi & Scodeggio (1996) who studyed the
color-mass relation of a local galaxy sample and agree with the analysis by
Cowie et al. (1996) who traced the star formation history of galaxies up to
z>1.Comment: 13 pages (LateX) + 24 figures + 4 tables. To appear in Astronomical
Journal, April 1998 issu
Perspectives of frailty and frailty screening: Protocol for a collaborative knowledge translation approach and qualitative study of stakeholder understandings and experiences
Accompanying the unprecedented growth in the older adult population worldwide is an increase in the prevalence of frailty, an age-related clinical state of increased vulnerability to stressor events. This increased vulnerability results in lower social engagement and quality of life, increased dependency, and higher rates of morbidity, health service utilization and mortality. Early identification of frailty is necessary to guide implementation of interventions to prevent associated functional decline. Consensus is lacking on how to clinically recognize and manage frailty. It is unknown how healthcare providers and healthcare consumers understand and perceive frailty, whether or not they regard frailty as a public health concern; and information on the indirect and direct experiences of consumer and healthcare provider groups towards frailty are markedly limited.We will conduct a qualitative study of consumer, practice nurse, general practitioner, emergency department physician, and orthopedic surgeons' perspectives of frailty and frailty screening in metropolitan and non-metropolitan South Australia. We will use tailored combinations of semi-structured interviews and arts-based data collection methods depending on each stakeholder group, followed by inductive and iterative analysis of data using qualitative description.Using stakeholder driven approaches to understanding and addressing frailty and frailty screening in context is critical as the prevalence and burden of frailty is likely to increase worldwide. We will use the findings from the Perceptions of Frailty and Frailty Screening study to inform a context-driven identification, implementation and evaluation of a frailty-screening tool; drive awareness, knowledge, and skills development strategies across stakeholder groups; and guide future efforts to embed emerging knowledge about frailty and its management across diverse South Australian contexts using a collaborative knowledge translation approach. Study findings will help achieve a coordinated frailty and healthy ageing strategy with relevance to other jurisdictions in Australia and abroad, and application of the stakeholder driven approach will help illuminate how its applicability to other jurisdictions.Mandy M. Archibald, Rachel Ambagtsheer, Justin Beilby, Mellick J. Chehade, Tiffany K. Gill, Renuka Visvanathan, and Alison L. Kitso
An Old Cluster in NGC 6822
We present spectroscopy of two clusters in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC
6822. From these we deduce an age for Cluster VII of 11 Gyr and [Fe/H] = -1.95
+/- 0.15 dex. Cluster VII appears to be an analog of the metal-poor galactic
globular clusters. Cluster VI is found to be much younger and more metal rich,
with an age of approximately 2 Gyr. Its derived metallicity, [Fe/H], of
approximately -1.0 dex is comparable to that of the gas seen today in NGC 6822.
The existence of a metal-poor old cluster in NGC 6822 rules out models for the
chemical evolution of this galaxy with significant prompt initial enhancement.
We find that a star formation rate which is constant with time and is within a
factor of two of the present star formation rate can reproduce the two points
on the age-metallicity relationship for NGC 6822 over the past 10 Gyr defined
by these two clusters.Comment: 8 pages; accepted for publication in A
Food waste based anaerobic digestion with centralized monitoring system
Food waste based anaerobic digestion with centralized monitoring syste
Parkes HI observations of galaxies behind the southern Milky Way. II. The Crux and Great Attractor regions (l ~ 289 degree to 338 degree)
As part of our programme to map the large-scale distribution of galaxies
behind the southern Milky Way, we observed 314 optically-selected,
partially-obscured galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) in the Crux and
Great Attractor (GA) regions. The observations were conducted with the Parkes
64m radio telescope, in a single-pixel pointed mode, reaching an rms noise
level of typically 2-6 mJy over the velocity search range of 400<v<10500km/s. A
total of 162 galaxies were detected. This can be explained by the prominence of
the GA overdensity in the survey regions, which leads to a relatively higher
fraction of nearby galaxies. It is also evident from the quite narrow velocity
distribution (largely confined to 3000-6000km/s) and deviates significantly
from the expectation of a uniform galaxy distribution for the given sensitivity
and velocity range. No systematic differences were found between detections and
non-detections, in terms of latitude, foreground extinction, or environment,
except for the very central part of the rich Norma cluster, where hardly any
galaxies were detected. A detailed investigation of the HI content of the
galaxies reveals strong HI deficiency at the core of the Norma cluster (within
about a 0.4 Abell radius), similar to what has been found in the Coma cluster.
The redshifts obtained by this observing technique result in a substantial
reduction of the so-called redshift ZOA. This is obvious when analysing the
large-scale structure of the new HI data in combination with data from optical
ZOA redshift surveys. The lower latitude detections provide further evidence of
the extension of the Norma Wall, across the ZOA, in particular its bending
towards the Cen-Crux clusters above the Galactic plane at slightly higher
redshift, rather than a straight continuation towards the Centaurus clusters.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures, including aa.cls; accepted by A
The Red-Sequence Luminosity Function in Galaxy Clusters since z~1
We use a statistical sample of ~500 rich clusters taken from 72 square
degrees of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS-1) to study the evolution of
~30,000 red-sequence galaxies in clusters over the redshift range 0.35<z<0.95.
We construct red-sequence luminosity functions (RSLFs) for a well-defined,
homogeneously selected, richness limited sample. The RSLF at higher redshifts
shows a deficit of faint red galaxies (to M_V=> -19.7) with their numbers
increasing towards the present epoch. This is consistent with the `down-sizing`
picture in which star-formation ended at earlier times for the most massive
(luminous) galaxies and more recently for less massive (fainter) galaxies. We
observe a richness dependence to the down-sizing effect in the sense that, at a
given redshift, the drop-off of faint red galaxies is greater for poorer (less
massive) clusters, suggesting that star-formation ended earlier for galaxies in
more massive clusters. The decrease in faint red-sequence galaxies is
accompanied by an increase in faint blue galaxies, implying that the process
responsible for this evolution of faint galaxies is the termination of
star-formation, possibly with little or no need for merging. At the bright end,
we also see an increase in the number of blue galaxies with increasing
redshift, suggesting that termination of star-formation in higher mass galaxies
may also be an important formation mechanism for higher mass ellipticals. By
comparing with a low-redshift Abell Cluster sample, we find that the
down-sizing trend seen within RCS-1 has continued to the local universe.Comment: ApJ accepted. 11 pages, 5 figure
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